Job 1:15

1:15 and the Sabeans ¹  swooped down ²  and carried them all away, and they killed ³  the servants with the sword! ⁴  And I – only I alone ⁵  – escaped to tell you!”

Job 1:17

1:17 While this one was still speaking another messenger arrived and said, “The Chaldeans ⁶  formed three bands and made a raid ⁷  on the camels and carried them all away, and they killed the servants with the sword! ⁸  And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ⁹  himself ¹⁰  with while he was sitting ¹¹  among the ashes. ¹² 

Job 38:13

38:13 that it might seize the corners of the earth, ¹³ 

and shake the wicked out of it?

Job 41:30

41:30 Its underparts ¹⁴  are the sharp points of potsherds,

it leaves its mark in the mud

like a threshing sledge. ¹⁵ 

Job 26:14

26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! ¹⁶ 

How faint is the whisper ¹⁷  we hear of him!

But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

[1:15]  ¹ tn The LXX has “the spoilers spoiled them” instead of “the Sabeans swooped down.” The translators might have connected the word to שְָׁבָה (shavah, “to take captive”) rather than שְׁבָא (shÿva’, “Sabeans”), or they may have understood the name as general reference to all types of Bedouin invaders from southern Arabia (HALOT 1381 s.v. שְׁבָא 2.c).

[1:15]  ² tn The Hebrew is simply “fell” (from נָפַל, nafal). To “fall upon” something in war means to attack quickly and suddenly.

[1:15]  ³ sn Job’s servants were probably armed and gave resistance, which would be the normal case in that time. This was probably why they were “killed with the sword.”

[1:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the edge/mouth of the sword”; see T. J. Meek, “Archaeology and a Point of Hebrew Syntax,” BASOR 122 (1951): 31-33.

[1:15]  ⁵ tn The pleonasms in the verse emphasize the emotional excitement of the messenger.

[1:17]  ⁶ sn The name may have been given to the tribes that roamed between the Euphrates and the lands east of the Jordan. These are possibly the nomadic Kaldu who are part of the ethnic Aramaeans. The LXX simply has “horsemen.”

[1:17]  ⁷ tn The verb פָּשַׁט (pashat) means “to hurl themselves” upon something (see Judg 9:33, 41). It was a quick, plundering raid to carry off the camels.

[1:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “with the edge/mouth of the sword.”

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ¹² sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ¹³ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ¹⁴ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[38:13]  ¹⁶ sn The poetic image is that darkness or night is like a blanket that covers the earth, and at dawn it is taken by the edges and shaken out. Since the wicked function under the cover of night, they are included in the shaking when the dawn comes up.

[41:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “under him.”

[41:30]  ²² tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”

[26:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the ends of his ways,” meaning “the fringes.”

[26:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “how little is the word.” Here “little” means a “fraction” or an “echo.”